The World’s Best Places To See Wildlife

Remote and difficult to access, the following locations are the complete opposite of a zoo. They offer perseverant travelers the opportunity to observe wildlife in a natural and pristine habitat. Travelers should however make every effort to tread lightly in these areas and travel only in the most environmentally responsibly ways. These places and animals are too special to be lost.

10. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States

Inaugurated in 1872, Yellowstone was the world’s first national park. The park is located in Wyoming, though it also extends into parts of Montana and Idaho. It is the focal point for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest intact ecosystem in the Northern Hemisphere. The park has an interesting mishmash of geography with plains, mountains, forests and geysers. One famous geyser, the Old Faithful, is known for its reliable and massive eruptions which take place every 91 minutes.

The Yellowstone National Park is the best place to view wildlife in the continental United States and a visit to the park has been an American family trip tradition since the invention of the automobile. The animal residents in the park include gray wolves, bison, grizzly bears and almost 60 other mammals!

While the park offers a countless number of outdoor adventures, some popular activities include hiking, snowmobiling, fly fishing, and camping. There are over 2,000 campsites which travelers can rest their head, as well as a number of lodges. Visitors planning a trip to Yellowstone should also consider visiting the Grand Teton National Park, located just 10 miles south of Yellowstone’s southern border.

9. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

Deep in the “Great White North”, on the western shores of Hudson Bay, is the small town of Churchill, home to the world’s largest polar bear denning area. Polar bears, as their name suggests, only live in the frozen north. They are the world’s largest land carnivores, with adult males weighing up to 1,500 pounds!

Fall is the best time to visit Churchill, as it’s when the bears are returning to the area after a summer of hunting on the ice. Large buggies depart from Churchill and travel across the frozen tundra to visit the polar bear denning area. Travelers are often rewarded by up close and personal views of polar bears going about their daily routines and sometimes even interacting with the buggies themselves.

Churchill is also one of the world’s best places to view the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Just like the polar bears, the fall is also the best time to witness this natural light show. Other seasons offer other opportunities. For instance travelers visiting in the summer can experience kayaking on the Hudson Bay with beluga whales and a midnight sun!

Canada’s national rail line, VIA Rail, provides regular train services to Churchill from Winnipeg. The 1,700 kilometer long trip takes two days, as the train plows from Canada’s southern prairies all the way to the Hudson Bay.

8. Shaanxi Province, China

China usually conjures up images of polluted and over-populated cities and scenes of extreme environmental degradation. Unfortunately, throughout most of the country, that is exactly the case. However, there are still some refuges of wildlife in China and at least one incredibly famous wildlife resident, the giant panda! These instantly recognizable bears are China’s most beloved animals, however they are also notoriously slow breeders and because of this they are on the verge of extinction. Only an estimated 2,000 of the bears remain in the wild.

Travelers hoping to catch a glimpse of a wild panda must travel to the Foping National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province. The remote bamboo forests of this nature reserve are the home to the world’s highest density of giant pandas in the wild. Seeing one means spending a small fortune to take a week-long trek through the reserve, but the scenery and potential payoff makes it worthwhile!

A more realistic goal might be to visit the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center in Sichuan Province. Because of the bears copulation problems, a lot of work is done to breed the animals in captivity and release them back into the wild. The merits of these programs have often been debated, but the Chengdu center has had some success. Travelers are welcome to visit the center and say hello to its resident pandas.

7. Madagascar, Africa

Madagascar is sometimes referred to as the 8th continent in recognition of the island’s unique and diverse fauna. Located roughly 400 kilometers west of the African mainland, Madagascar has been a world unto itself for more than 80 million years. In this time the island’s wildlife has evolved in a way that is almost entirely unique to the island. One special group of animals in Madagascar are the lemurs.

At almost 600,000 square kilometers, Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island. It is covered in rainforests and its coast is lined with tropical beaches. In addition to its land-dwelling animals such as lemurs and sloths, Madagascar also has an offshore coral reef and an abundant marine life.

Because of its colonial history, the easiest way to reach Madagascar is not from Africa as might be expected, but via plane from France. Flights depart regularly from Paris to its capital, Antananarivo. Trips to the 8th continent don’t come cheap though, and a return flight from Paris to Antananarivo usually costs upwards of $2,000 US.

6. Antarctica

Antarctica is the only uninhabited continent. While there are science stations and remote bases, no person has ever lived on Antarctica on a permanent basis. There’s a reason for this, it’s rugged, remote, cold and very difficult to access. That’s not say Antarctica is void of life though, there are an estimated 40 million penguins living on the continent! Macquarie Island alone is home to over three million penguins, that’s an almost unfathomable amount of happy feet!

Travelers to this frozen land are rewarded for their persistence with stunning scenery, unique wildlife and a chance to visit a place that few ever get to see. Tourists, however, are limited in how they choose to travel to Antarctica. The most popular way is to take a cruise from South America. These large cruise ships depart regularly during the summer months (Southern Hemisphere: November-February) from Ushuaia and Tierra Del Fuego in Patagonia. Less frequent ships also depart from cities as far north as Buenos Aires. These cruises usually last upwards of ten days and some of them even allow passengers the opportunity to take shore excursions onto the continent itself. There are also cruises that depart from Tasmania and New Zealand. These cruises visit the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.

Another option to visit Antarctica is to take a flight from Punta Arenas in Chile to a landing strip in Antarctica and from there board a cruise ship. This avoids the rough Drake Passage and allows visitors to experience Antarctica in as little as one week.

5. Rwanda, Africa

Rwanda is best known for its gruesome and brutal civil war in the 1990s that resulted in one of history’s worst cases of genocide and murder. It has taken a long time for the country to heal from its wounds and a lot of work remains to be done, but for the first time since Rwandans are beginning to look to the future and view it with optimism and hope.

Though Rwanda’s beautiful scenery and fauna is often overshadowed by its turbulent recent history, there’s no doubt that the country is one of the world’s most unique and beautiful places to view wildlife. Besides boasting a beautiful landscape, Rwanda is also home to a significant portion of the world’s surviving mountain gorillas.

Mountain Gorillas, because of their remarkable intelligence and similarity to humans, are a captivating and fascinating animal. Unfortunately, rapid industrialization and conflict have threatened the very survival of these gorillas. Less than 1,000 are estimated to remain in the wild and without a lot of help, the gorillas could soon be gone forever.

Rwanda has in recent years restructured its national park program and has begun to take advantage of its newfound stability to welcome thousands of travelers annually to these parks. Travelers come from around the world to take walking safaris through the area’s mountainous forests just for the chance of seeing one of the mysterious and beautiful gorillas. The influx of cash from the tourists has given the Rwandan conservation efforts millions of Dollars to help protect the gorillas.

4. Alaska, United States

“The Last Frontier”, Alaska is 650,000 square miles of isolation and tranquility. While its human population is small, the state has an abundant wildlife community with everything from Kodiak bears to bald eagles. The landscape isn’t too bad either. Beautiful parts of the state include the Aleutian Islands, which are surrounded by frozen and wild waters, and the Denali National Park, home to the jagged Mount McKinley.

There are many different ways to see Alaska’s wildlife. Marine life enthusiasts can embark upon whale watching tours from Seward, where there are gray whales, orcas and even humpback whales! Denali National Park, on the other hand, is the place to see land-dwelling animals such as grizzly bears, caribou, moose and more.

One fun adventure that is possible in Alaska is a dogsledding trip. Alaska is, after all, the home of the annual Iditarod sled dog race. Don’t worry though, travelers don’t have to undertake the grueling race to experience dogsledding. Many companies offer shorter, day-trips and weeklong adventures through Alaska’s frozen wilderness.

3. Amazon Rainforest, South America

The Amazon Rainforest, the world’s largest, is a hot, remote and mysterious place. Intersected by the Amazon River, the rainforest borders eight countries and is larger than most of the nations on earth. More than 1/3 of the world’s animal species call the rainforest home, but much of what lies inside the rainforest is still a mystery. New tribes, plants and animal species are found in the forest almost every year.

Despite the Amazon’s immense importance to the global environment, logging and deforestation persist at an almost unchecked rate. In the last few years alone the rainforest has lost an area the size of Greece! Environmentally sustainable tourism isn’t a cure-all, but it can help stem the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. The long-term Dollars of tourism, if done right, can provide an incentive to communities and regions to preserve the natural habitat.

One interesting way to see the rainforest is via a river cruise down the Amazon. This is the world’s largest river and one of its longest, stretching over 4,000 miles from Peru to the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil. Many cruises depart from the Brazilian city of Manaus. There are also jungle lodges in the Amazon which offer tourists a unique way to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the rainforest.

2. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands are located over 600 miles west of the South American continent in the Pacific Ocean. The islands and their unique wildlife are what inspired naturalist Charles Darin to develop his theory of evolution. He observed that the Galapagos Islands’ plant and animal life seemed to have adapted to the local environment of the islands.

Almost 200 years later and the islands’ wildlife are still inspiring travelers. The islands’ most famous residents include green sea turtles, sea lions and the iconic Galapagos land iguana. Scuba diving is a popular activity on the islands and a great way to see the turtles and sea lions up close.

Tourism to the islands is quite difficult and for preservation purposes there is an annual cap on visitors. The majority of tourists arrive to the islands via cruise ships from Ecuador, but there are also flights. Visiting is certainly not cheap, but for nature enthusiasts who want to visit one of the world’s last remaining paradises, it’s worth it!

1. Botswana, Africa

Botswana is nourished and well preserved by mother nature, in fact, the whole nation is practically one big national park! The country boasts one of the world’s most conservative environmental policies and has tailored its tourism market to the upscale eco-traveler in an effort to bring in much needed cash, but reduce the environmental impact that comes with mass tourism.

The Okavango Delta region in the country’s north is particularly renowned for its biological diversity. It’s the world’s largest inland delta and the stamping ground of many of Africa’s big names such as: lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, rhinos and giraffes!

To experience the Okavango Delta and its wildlife visitors can stay at one of the area’s many luxurious game lodges. The typical experience at one of these lodges involves taking two daily safaris, one in the early morning and one just before dusk, with the rest of the day spent lounging, birdwatching and eating fantastic food!